Paper jams occasionally occur in the paper path of single sheet printers and copiers. In any case, the paper path must be at least partially uncovered in order to remove jammed sheets. For the sake of simplicity, only single sheet printers shall be mentioned below instead of single sheet printers and copiers; not only paper but also other printing matter can be processed with single sheet printers, whereby only paper jam, paper material and the like shall be mentioned below.
In order to remove jammed sheets from the paper path, it is known, for example, to arrange shutters along the paper path that form a part of the guide surface of the paper path in the closed condition and that can be pivoted away from the paper path in the case of a paper jam so that the user can remove the jammed sheets.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,116,556, thus, discloses a copier device wherein a shutter arrangement is provided for removing potential paper jams in the area of the photo conductor drum. The shutter arrangement is composed of two shutters connected to one another via an articulation, the one thereof being seated at the housing of the copier device pivotable around a swivelling axis. The two shutters can be adjusted in common between an operating position wherein they form a guide surface for the paper path and an open position wherein the shutters are swivelled away from the paper path and release a lateral interspace between the paper path and the shutters through which the jammed sheets can be removed. A comparable shutter arrangement having two shutters pivotably seated at the housing is also disclosed by U.S. Pat. No. 4,478,506 or, respectively, by JP-57 151 954 A.
Given these known shutter arrangements, the shutters can in fact be swivelled away from the paper path in order to enable access into the paper path. The interspace between the paper path and the shutters produced for the access, however, is comparatively small due to the small structural volume of such copier devices, so that the jammed sheets can only be removed from the paper path under more difficult conditions and with a great expenditure of time.
Therefore, there is a need for a shutter arrangement for single sheet printers and copiers that can be unproblematically opened and enables simple access to the paper path.